KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Two women are worried sick about their missing daughters while a runaway Vietnamese bride has left a lorry driver with a broken heart.
These are the sad tales told at the office of MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong.
Forty-four-year-old Yong Mei Dan from Cheras has been having sleepless nights since her daughter ran away on March 24.
The 12-year-old girl, Choong Jia Ynn, was last seen in her workout clothes at Miharja LRT station.
"I realised something was amiss when my mobile phone and SIM card went missing," said Yong, who sought help from Chong.
Later, Jia Ynn sent a text message to her mother telling her that she had run away from home to seek freedom and is putting up at a friend's house.
"She's only 12. I'm afraid something bad might happen to her," said Yong in tears, adding that she has since lodged a report at the Salak South police station.
Another mother, housewife Meliani Magdalena Soediredjo, 46, from Surabaya, Indonesia, is also worried for her daughter's safety.
Meliani has been living in Malaysia with her family in Mont' Kiara for the past five years, using the social pass visit under "Malaysia - My Second Home Programme".
Her daughter, Foo Wen Ding Jacqueline Beatrice, 22, ran away from home to be with her boyfriend on March 19.
Foo got to know her boyfriend, known as Jack Ho, 34, through an online social network website, Friendster.
"She may not be a minor, but she is still my daughter. If this man has honest intentions with her, he should bring my daughter back. You should not run away with someone's daughter like this," said Meliani.
Desperate for her daughter's return, Meliani warns that she and her Australian Chinese husband might take extreme measures by cancelling her daughter's visa.
Those who have any information on the whereabouts of the girls are urged to call 03-2161 5678.
Meanwhile, lorry driver Lim Chor Wong is pining for his runaway Vietnamese bride who has been missing since March 1 after she went for a vacation.
Lim, 49, married Vo Thi Hong, 25, from Dong Thap, through an agent known as Ah Yee on April 2007.
"After I came home from a job in Penang, my brother who lives next door informed me that my wife had run away. She called him to tell that she was holidaying," said Lim from Taiping.
Lim lodged a police report citing he had spent RM14, 000 to the agent for matchmaking.
He also suspects the agent, known as Ah Yee, conspired with his wife.
Not only did his wife leave him broken-hearted, she also allegedly took RM3,000 worth of jewellery. To add salt to the wound, the marriage was never consummated. He was made to sleep outside the room.
According to Chong, his department has received at least two cases involving young Vietnamese brides this year.
"I hope Malaysian men would think twice and hard before marrying foreign women," said Chong.
